Generally, bicycle speed-change lever devices comprise a lever shaft having a round portion, a not-round portion, and a threaded bore; an operating lever supported rotatably to the round portion at the lever shaft, a friction plate elastically deformable to give a resistance against the rotation the operating lever, an urging member for urging the friction plate and having a not-round through-bore through which it is fitted onto the not-round portion at the lever shaft, andc a screw member which screws with the screw thread the lever shaft and urges the urging member to give the rotational resistance to the lever. In detail, the operating lever is rotatably supported at the boss thereof to the round portion of the lever shaft, and the friction plate is inserted onto the not-round portion of the lever shaft, the urging member is fitted at its not-round through bore onto the not-round portion of the lever shaft and the screw member screws with the threaded bore at the lever shaft, as a result the screw member screws forwardly or backwardly to adjust the rotational resistance given to the operating lever.
The urging member has a not-round through bore slightly larger in sectional area than the not-round portion of the lever shaft to thereby be easy to fit thereon. Hence, when the urging member is fitted onto the lever shaft, a slight gap is developed between the inner periphery of the not-round through bore at the urging member and the outer periphery of the not-round portion at the lever shaft. As a result, the urging member, when the operating lever is operated, will rotate together with the friction plate a small amount with respect to the lever shaft through the aforesaid rotational resistance in a range defined by the above-described gap. Such rotation of the urging member is repeated several times, resulting in the screw member becoming loose and the friction plate having a reduced urging force, so that not only the rotational resistance given to the operating lever may be reduced but also the operating lever may become loose with respect to the lever shaft, thereby creating a problem of lowering the operability the speed-change lever device.